Struggling (prompt 1) ~

 

My beloved struggles hourly, his life

parsed laboured breath by laboured breath.

I listen/don’t listen, struggling myself

wondering how long how long how long

Like a heartbeat I hear it, the refrain:

how long        how long        how long

3 a.m., and I listen, struggling

to separate the generator’s shush of air

in out  in out  in out

from his own knife edge breath

that oh so very slowly severs

all these years of threads